Traces of the Geometrical Ordering of Roman Florence

Year: 1998 Authors: Carol Martin Watts; Donald J. Watts

Core claim

Roman Florence’s plan reflects a discrete geometrical relationship to the Arno river valley centuriation that underlies the city’s historical form.

Topics

Roman urban planning, geometrical ordering, archaeological stratigraphy

Domains

geometry, mathematics of spatial order, architecture, urban design

Methods

historical interpretation, archaeological evidence, geometric analysis

Media

cathedral site, Roman city plan, Arno river valley

Paper text

The text below is the locally extracted OCR/Markdown version of the paper. Raw PDF files remain local and are not published here.

BRIDGES Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science

Traces of the Geometrical Ordering of Roman Florence

Carol Martin Watts and Donald J. Watts Department of Architecture and Design Kansas State University 211 Seaton Hall Manhattan, KS 66506-2901 USA e-mail cmwatts@ksu.ksu.edu e-mail watts@ksu.ksu.edu

The plan of Roman Florence possesses a discrete geometrical relationship to the larger Roman centuriation of the Arno river valley. This relationship establishes the key geometrical ordering of the Roman city of Florence which has served as the subtle underpinning of the later development of the city. While fragments of this Roman past are scarce, the area underneath the Cathedral of Florence contains the most extensive archaeological site showing the various layers of the city.

This presentation shows the evidence at hand for understanding the Roman construction present underneath the cathedral. The understanding of Roman planning and architecture in terms of geometry and mathematics plays a fundamental role in interpreting the history of the site.